Euro-American and its near twin European American have gained a certain currency in recent years as designations for white Americans, that is, Americans of European descent. Euro-American is first recorded as a noun in a passage by the anthropologist Margaret Meade written in 1949, but its growing use outside of anthropology is probably a response to the popularity in American English of compound ethnic designations such as Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, and more recently African American. The addition of Euro-American and European American to this list offers a useful alternative to white or white American, terms that emphasize skin color over cultural heritage. However, the general public has so far been slow to adopt them.
